Human Life: A Rare of The Rarest Thing

Recently I have lost my brother-in-law at his very young age. He was intelligent, gentle and well behaved.  But somehow, he lost the meaning of his life being victim of the circumstances. He lost his job during the last pandemic. Within a short period, he got another shock being separated from his wife who took centerstage of his life at some point of time. Sheer frustration led him to intoxication beyond the control and his organs had to pay for it. Ultimately, his precious life succumbed to the cardio-respiratory failure all on a sudden. It’s very pathetic to me as he was very close to my heart.

When I was witnessing his corpse rituals at cremation site, sudden insights struck me. If the life ends purposelessly without any value addition, then why is the human life destined?  Pondering further, I could sense that when nature has selected this form of life (human) with the thinnest minuscule probability, it has to be the rarest and most precious thing in this Universe. Of course, it is so. It can’t be taken for granted at any cost. At least not at the cost for crying over the spilt milk.

Let’s check the rarity and preciousness of human life through the lens of the theory of probability.

We know that there are four basic elements which encode a gene at DNA. These are four nucleotides named as Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C). The permutation of these four nucleotides in gene structure differentiates one human from another. It’s estimated that the number of probable human gene’s structure is about 70 trillion or 70x10¹² nos., whereas till today total number of human gens generated is 117 billion or 117x10⁹ nos i.e. 117 billion humans have taken birth till now.

Hence, the probability of generation of human gene is 117 billion to 70 trillion i.e. 1.67x10^-3. (P1)

Further, the probability of a human sperm to fuse with an egg is one in 250 million i.e. 4x10^-9.  (P2)

Now if we look at the Universe, we get from the Drake Equation that the total number of habitable planets in our Milky Way galaxy is around 1.4 billion i.e. 1.4x10⁹ nos. Since number of galaxies in our observable Universe is around 2 trillion i.e. 2x10¹² nos., we can estimate that the total number of habitable planets in our Universe is around 2.8 sexitillion i.e. 2.8x10²¹ nos.

Hence, the probability of selection of earth as a habitable planet in this Universe is one in 2.8x10²¹ i.e. 3.57x10^-22.  (P3)

Now, if we multiply all the above three probabilities, we will get the approximate probability (P) of taking birth by a person in earth.

Hence, P = P1 x P2 x P3 = 2.39x10^-33, which is near to zero.

It means a person’s existence in earth is a rare of the rarest opportunity one can think of.

Hence, no way a human life should be allowed to destroy oneself or by anyone else. It’s destined to have meaning. Every human life must be having meaning.

IKIGAI (GAI: a reason IKI: to live), an old Japanese practice, also tells us the same thing.

Let’s find out the meaning of our life and make the best use of this rarest opportunity.

Best of Luck!

Life is Beautiful